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A member of YDN's Managing Board who is involved in the editorial-writing process tells us that editor-in-chief Max de la Bruyere "pitched" the private jet editorial around the same time they reportedly heard about Witt's sexual assault accusation. The private jet editorial didn't make it into print, either. De la Bruyere declined to comment on it. [See update]

Witt's sexual assault accusation was a remarkably open secret: After the New York Timesreported last night that Witt may have dropped out of the Rhodes due to the sex scandal, not loyalty to Yale football, staffers on the Yale Daily News listserv admitted to knowing about the story for months. You'd think someone would have spilled the beans sooner?

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What other open secrets do Yale, Patrick Witt, and The Yale Daily News have? Email maureen@gawker.com if you know.

Update: Max de la Bruyere writes in:

Dear Maureen,

First off, the claims about the editorial are absurd. However, that narrative sounds like the story of Florida State's Myron Rolle — a story I repeated to many people when I heard about Witt's situation.

Second: I did know by late November that there had been an informal complaint filed against Patrick Witt. The student who filed it chose to keep it informal, though she had the option of making a formal complaint. I decided to respect the discretion that she opted for when she made that choice. As a student paper dealing with unproven allegations and an informal complaint, we chose to honor the woman's wishes and Yale's process for such a complaint.

Third: I never declined to comment for your original blog post. I'm sorry it took me a few hours to get to your email.

All best,
Max de La Bruyère

I asked whether "absurd" meant the pitch didn't happen, or some other part of the story was whack. I'll update if Max responds.